There is a store that only sells one thing: billiard tables. It carries all kinds of billiard tables. You might be surprised to know the different kinds of billiard tables that are made. The price of each table varies too. One can buy a billiard table for as low as $200 to as high as $3,000!

All the salesmen in this store are very knowledgeable. They know everything about the game and even more about the tables. They are trained in a sales system. They would show the customer the $329 table first. They would reveal the features and benefits of that table one by one.

Then they would point to another table and say: “This table here is a bit pricey and costs more than $329 but it also has more benefits.” They would then compare the 2 tables and people would get interested in the more expensive table. After all, people buy the billiards table just once and might as well select the better one! The salesmen would then show a few more expensive tables and see if the customer gets interested in them or not. This process generated a handsome average sale of $550!

The nightclub business is a trendy business. Through some unknown criteria, the masses decide which club is “happening” on a particular day of the week. Some clubs will be the rage on Mondays but be total duds on Tuesdays. This is the case even if the club plays the same music on both the days.

One such nightclub was known for being the most happening club on Wednesdays. There would be huge queues outside the club on Wednesdays, but Fridays was another story. The nightclub always made a loss on Fridays.

Mary and Jane are having lunch together. They’ve met after a year and are catching up on their lives. Jane narrates why she marries Jerry instead of George…

Jane: “George has everything. He is handsome. Has a great sense of humour. Went to Harvard and is very intelligent. Runs his own business too. In fact, when I was with him, I felt like I was with the most wonderful person in this world.”

The café is a nice and successful coffee shop. It has a nice atmosphere and friendly people behind the counter.

The café starts selling freshly squeezed orange juice in limited quantity to provide more variety to their early morning patrons. One employee would squeeze the oranges and produce about 10-12 cups of it. Orange juice has as high a profit margin as coffee. And they thought that by giving more choice to people, they might increase sales. But they didn’t do too well. They didn’t even sell those 12 cups a day.

Gina operates a Restaurant and knows that for long- term success of the restaurant, she will have to find a cost effective way to build loyalty between the diners and the restaurant. Gina shells out about some ad dollars and buys a full-page ad in the local newspaper. The ad simply says “Restaurant Survey.” The survey asks questions like:

° How often do you eat out?

° How often do you order delivery?

To convince people to fill out and mail the survey, Gina offers an incentive of $10 gift certificate to people. Her survey works better than she expects. It brings in more than 2,000 responses! Continue reading “Restaurant survey”

The book “South Beach Diet” became an instant hit as soon as it was published. It is a slightly modified version of the Atkins diet and soon after Rodale had published it, it started climbing the bestseller lists. In fact, that book has topped the national bestsellers list for months. When Waterfront Media published the ebook version of South Beach Diet at southbeachdiet.com, they thought it would be a massive hit online too.

But unfortunately that wasn’t so. The ebook version didn’t catch on. Bo Peabody, the founder of Waterfront Media, who had earlier sold Tripod.com to Lycos.com, was quoted as saying: “A book is incredibly compelling in the hands of a reader on the beach, but not so compelling when it’s in digital form on the computer screen.” Was this the end of the ebook fad? Continue reading “Repackaging the carb-book”

John invested in a small business. He purchased a “hobby and game” store that had been run profitably since the past 30 years. The old owner wanted to retire and thus John was able to receive a great deal on the shop.

Soon after he bought the store, John found out that all was not right. The store had been neglected for a long time. The old owner had not bought any new merchandise since the last 10 months. Due to the decline in new kinds of games, the long time loyal buyers had stopped visiting the store. In addition to that, the months long liquidation sale had attracted the wrong type of people to the store – the deal seekers who only wanted discounts and cheap products!

Some businesses have seasonal ups and downs. One such business is of a lawn service provider. Business is good in summers. But during winters, no one buys lawn servicing, bringing a cash flow problem to the business. A bad summer can mean doom for the small business owner! Continue reading “Winning the seasonal wars”

Real estate is a fiercely competitive industry. Dozens of realtors crop up when the economy is good and real estate prices are high. It is hard to stand out of the crowd when you do the same thing that other realtors do: Sell houses. One Florida realtor named Marie used a tactic successfully that helped her leave her competition lagging way behind. Continue reading “Real estate magnet”